20 Collectible Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Authors

In a two-partpost, SF Bookworm lists these 20 Collectible Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Authors…authors who are deemed to be “highly influential and therefore worthy of collecting”:

Isaac Asimov

Robert Bloch

John Brunner

Edgar Rice Burroughs

C.J. Cherryh

Glen Cook

Philip K. Dick

Harlan Ellison

Robert Heinlein

William Gibson

Fritz Leiber

Michael Moorcock

Andre Norton

Frederik Pohl

Terry Pratchett

Theodore Sturgeon

Jack Vance

Roger Zelazny

A nice list, to be sure, but as a confessed biblioholic I find it way too short.

Subjective lists also lead me to ask the inevitably pointless ranking-related questions… No Brian Aldiss? No Iain Banks? No Campbell; John for sf, Ramsey for horror? No Lester del Rey or C.M. Kornbluth? No Ursula K. Le Guin, C.S. Lewis or C.L. Moore? How about Smiths Cordwainer and E.E. “Doc”? No Tiptree, Tolkien or Wolfe?

I fear that we will too late learn that the Technological Singularity will come with a price, and that price will be an internet where Top Five/Ten/One Hundred Lists will outnumber all other forms of content.

This will also affect language. We may develop into race that can communicate complex concepts only through numbered lists, sorta like the ST:TNG episode Darmok did with metaphors.